A blog on jiu jitsu, grappling, judo, and wrestling: from competition mindset to technique analysis.

Review of FIVE Grappling 5-man Round Robin Tournament

FIVE Grappling (facebook) put on a 5-man Round Robin Tournament as well as a regular tournament yesterday, and provided a live feed of the biggest matches (the round robin and the finals). That added up to 3 hours of tournament footage with excellent commentary that had guests Dean Lister, Xande Ribeiro, and Clark Gracie. I’d like to echo a lot of the jiu jitsu community in saying a big thank you to FIVE grappling for putting all of this together. The quality of the feed and commentary were far better than ADCC, and the matches was just as exciting (even the finals of the little kids divisions).

Round Robin Results

The round robin ended up with the following result:

Keenan Cornelius

Jackson Sousa

Garry Tonon

James Puopolo

Beneil Dariush

That ranking doesn’t tell the complete story though. Neither Jackson nor Keenan lost, and against each other they went 0-0 with a ref decision that went Keenan’s way but could’ve very easily went the other way. While Keenan came out on top here and in the 2013 Worlds, I don’t think there was a decisive winner yet. I’d love to see another several 10 minute matches between these two, and I’m sure we will. (This round robin had short 6 minute matches to encourage action).

Also, while Garry lost on points to both Keenan and Jackson, he put himself in bad positions and successfully escaped them without getting tapped. He was also giving up 15-25 lbs to the other two. Either way, he’s exciting as hell to watch, win or lose.

Notable Jiu Jitsu Techniques

There was a lot of good jiu jitsu, but here are some things that stood out for me. I’ll add more if I have time, but for now it’s just three. First, in the finals of the purple belt absolute, Edwin Najmi showed a lot of patience and determination in sticking to a belly-down footlock for 3 minutes and finally finishing it. It’s something I’ve been playing around with in a very different way and was glad to see that this position has some promise:

I was also impressed by Jackson Souza’s no-gi wresting and passing game. In a points tournament, I don’t see many people beating him. He shoots early in all his matches, so you better be ready. Here is a nice double leg takedown he had on Gary Tonon in the beginning of their match, and it end up being the deciding factor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7SiKZUkpoc

And here’s a single leg against James Puopolo again in the very beginning:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDk_Pc5TO6w

I can’t wait to see these guys put on more events, and I’ll even be willing to pay money for a stream of this kind of quality.